New iPhones to be available in more than 115 countries by year-end

A customer holds an iPhone 6 (R) and iPhone 6 Plus after the phones went on sale at the Fifth Avenue Apple store in Manhattan, New York September 19, 2014. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said that its recently released iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones will be available in more than 115 countries by the end of the year.

The iPhones will arrive in 36 additional countries and territories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa by the end of this month, Apple said.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be made available in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market, and India from Oct. 17.

Other countries where the phones will be launched include Israel, Czech Republic, Greenland, Poland, South Africa, Bahrain and Kuwait, making this the fastest rollout of iPhones, the company said.

Reuters had earlier reported that the iPhone 6 will be sold in China from Oct 17, after rigorous regulator scrutiny led to Apple reassuring the Chinese government that the smartphones did not have security “backdoors” through which U.S. agencies can access users’ data.